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Good Night, Nurse!

From time to time I get emails from folks who’ve read Finding Me in France offering their reviews. They are incredibly kind and gracious and say things like, “Oh I laughed and laughed,” or, “You’ve inspired me to travel more,” or, “Overuse of the word arse gets tiresome.” That last one has been my favourite until now.

The other day I got a curious email from a name I didn’t recognize (let’s call her Florence). Her message was fairly direct, in fact, one sentence: “Does the name So and So (again, to protect the innocent) from Corner Brook (town in Newfoundland) ring a bell?” I saw that the email was cc’ed to So and So. Intrigued, I wrote back, “Yes, my head is always ringing with bells.”

It became clear that these two women worked together with the next reply, ” I have just put your book down…magical…laughing out loud in the middle of our recovery room for the last few days…driving So and So crazy…I think my two favourite Newfies should get together for a drink.” Either they both worked at a hospital or my book is currently being used as an anesthetic agent for major surgery.

Then they starting talking to each other and copied me on the exchange:

So and So: “This is one small crazy globe we live on!!! Love it:)”

Florence: “Yes…I will get some AirCanada passes and we will hunt your fellow Newfie down if she agrees …”

Turns out they’re nurses at a surgical hospital. Florence has become an instant fan, and she must be a good nurse because she gave me a megadose of the best medicine with her next email: ” Trust me…I cannot stop talking about this book….a fabulous antidote to that piece of shit “Eat, Pray, Love”….finally!”

Ladies and gentlemen, if there is a better book review out there I haven’t seen it. Where the hell was she when the cover was being printed? I would’ve begged my publisher to splatter that in red paint right across the front. Oprah herself would’ve been on my doorstep. Instead, two nurses are likely to show up, definitely a more useful scenario for someone in my state of decrepitude. I hope they’re prepared for the amount of care I require. I also hope they make everybody in that hospital buy a copy. Something tells me those two won’t come cheap.